


the holiday season.

by pyroallerdyce



Series: dreams of another reality. [1]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence, Boarding School, Boys Kissing, Christmas, December writing challenge, Female Friendship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gen, Hanukkah, High School, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Mistletoe, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Secrets, Short One Shot, Traditions, Tumblr Prompt, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21749314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce
Summary: It's the holiday seasonWith the whoop-de-do and hickory dockAnd don't forget to hang up your sock"Cause just exactly at 12 o'clockHe'll be coming down the chimneyComing down the chimneyComing down the chimney, down!or:  For different reasons, John, Bobby, Rogue, Piotr, Kitty, and Jubilee are all staying at the mansion for the winter break.  Kitty starts missing Hanukkah traditions, Bobby is longing for some Christmas ones, and Jubilee says they should have traditions of their own.  She draws up a list which contains ten traditions that mix Hanukkah and Christmas ones together, and the tenth tradition might just be a plan to get John and Bobby to kiss each other already.
Relationships: John Allerdyce & Bobby Drake & Jubilation Lee & Kitty Pryde & Piotr Rasputin & Rogue, John Allerdyce/Bobby Drake
Series: dreams of another reality. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567585
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: December Writing Challenge - 2019





	the holiday season.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first story in the Dreams of Another Reality series. Throughout the coming months, myself and my partner-in-crime Grey_Summers will be posting our version of the altered timeline with some variations. So, this is way, way canon divergent. XMFC & DOFP happened, as well as slightly altered XMA, so therefore DP was very, very different and that would make the events of the original trilogy very, very different as well. (All of which we're very much looking forward to exploring.) The only things you need to know for this particular story are that Erik didn't leave at the end of XMA and is at the school, Bobby and Rogue were never a thing, and Jubilee was a teenager in the early 2000s, not suddenly appearing in the early 1980s. (I will forever hate how underused she was in all of those films.) Any other differences that our version of the altered timeline just brought up (and there would be soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many) don't matter to this particular story. This particular story is just about my favorite group of movieverse sixteen-year-olds spending the holiday season of 2001 together at Mutant High. 
> 
> Also, I'm not Jewish so I got some of the Hanukkah traditions that I didn't know about off [this website](https://www.punchbowl.com/p/5-hanukkah-traditions). My sincerest apologies if any of them are wrong or I interpreted any of them incorrectly.
> 
> Day 10 of my December writing challenge. Prompt by veronicabunchwrites on Tumblr. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Day 10 prompt: For different reasons, our entire group of friends won't be joining our families for the holidays, so we make a list of ten new holiday traditions (and my favorite might be kissing you).  
> Day 10 title song: Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season by Andy Williams

**December 2001**

As the holiday season approached, everyone was pretty much dreading it. None of them were going home, though for different reasons. John, Jubilee, and Piotr were all staying at the mansion again because they had nowhere else to go. John had come from the foster care system, Jubilee had been living in a mall in Los Angeles when the Professor had found her, and Piotr wasn't welcome back in Russia. For Rogue, it was her first Christmas since being kicked out by her parents after the incident that put her boyfriend in a coma, and she was just happy that she wasn't out there fending for herself in the snow. Kitty wasn't going to be experiencing Hanukkah with her parents this year because they were off on the trip of a lifetime in Australia, December being the only time that both of them could get off work at the same time. And Bobby wished he was going back to Boston, but his parents had made it clear that he was no longer welcome at home after finding out that he was a mutant.

It was during dinner on the tenth of December when Kitty started talking about how much she was going to miss all of the traditions she had with her parents for Hanukkah. She was used to spending all eight days with them and her extended family, but since her parents were going to be gone, everyone else had made different plans and none of them involved her. Bobby spoke up and said that he knew what she meant because there were a bunch of Christmas traditions that he was going to miss too. Rogue mentioned that she'd miss her grandmother's sugar cookies, and Piotr brought up the fact that Christmases were very different in Russia and he was still trying to adapt to American ones. When everyone's attention turned to John, he just said that he hated every Christmas that he'd ever spent anywhere, so he was not one for traditions. Then Jubilee had the idea to come up with holiday traditions of their own since they would all be there for Christmas and all of Hanukkah, but John started asking Kitty if he could borrow her geometry notes and everyone promptly forgot about it.

Except Jubilee.

**Two Days Later**

Jubilee waited to pull the list out of her backpack until everyone was seated and eating. “Can I have everyone's attention, please?”

They all stopped eating and looked at her, and Jubilee just smiled at everyone. “I have made a list of our new holiday traditions.”

“Fucking hell,” John muttered, and she just shot him a look before continuing.

“I have incorporated both Hanukkah and Christmas in this, so there are traditions from both. So here is The Definitive List of Mutant Holiday Traditions™. Everyone is going to love it.”

“I can already tell that I won't after that bullshit title,” John said.

“Shut up.”

“Where did you learn the Jewish traditions, Jubes?” Kitty asked.

“I got suggestions from Erik.”

Kitty smiled. “That's great, Jubes. Now, let's hear them.”

“Okay, tradition number one is dreidel.” 

“Dreidel!” Kitty exclaimed. “How are we going to get dreidels?”

“Erik said he will provide the dreidels for us,” Jubilee said, smiling at her. “Kitty, you will teach everyone how to play.”

“You guys are going to love it,” Kitty said. “I promise.”

“I'm sure I won't,” John muttered. 

“Shut up,” Jubilee said seriously. “Tradition number two is caroling.”

“How on earth are we gonna go carolin', Jubes?” Rogue asked. “We're not allowed to leave the mansion right now.”

“It is very simple. I will pick out some traditional carols for us, everyone will memorize them, and then we will go door to door singing to the students.”

John was about to start complaining again when Jubilee continued. “We will make guesses on how many doors will be slammed in our faces beforehand and whoever guesses closest will win a piece of pizza from the mall's food court. I have already set aside money for it.”

John silently decided that he had to win that. He loved the pizza in the food court but he could usually never afford it, especially this time of year.

“I used to love going caroling with my family,” Bobby murmured, looking down at his hands.

“Then you will love going caroling with us,” Jubilee said confidently. “Tradition number three is Gelt.” 

Kitty grinned at her. “This is amazing, Jubes.”

“Would someone care to enlighten us as to what Gelt is?” Piotr said. “Because I don't know what that is.”

“Gelt is the Yiddish word for money,” Kitty explained. “You go around passing out coins to people like teachers or little kids. At least that's what we do.”

“That sounds expensive,” Rogue said. “I ain't got money to be givin' to everybody else.”

“Relax, Rogue. We always do it with chocolate coins,” Kitty said, smiling at her.

“Yes, we will be doing it with chocolate coins,” Jubilee said, drawing their attention back to her. “I have already requested that chocolate coins be put on the professors' next shopping list. Erik said he will get them to me. Once I have them, we will go around and distribute them to the younger kids.”

John rolled his eyes at that and Jubilee shot him a glare before moving on to the next one. “Tradition number four is decorating cookies.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Bobby asked. “We have no way of doing that.”

“Dr. Grey is giving out extra credit for those who help with decorating cookies in the kitchens, so I signed us all up.” 

“I knew I wasn't going to like this,” John said, shaking his head. 

“Shut up,” Jubilee said, looking down at her list again. “Tradition number five is Hanukkah presents. We will still have our traditional Secret Santa exchange, but we will also exchange small presents with each other on each day of Hanukkah.”

“You want to talk about something that sounds fucking expensive,” John said, shaking his head. “There's no way I can do that.”

“Make it work, John,” Jubilee said, continuing on before John could say anything else. “Tradition number six is handmade cards. I will get all of the supplies but we are all going to make handmade cards for the professors.”

“What are we, five?” John asked.

“Shut up, Johnny,” Jubilee hissed, glaring at him again.

“I always used to give my grandmother a handmade card,” Bobby said quietly, and Kitty reached over and squeezed his hand. “But doing this will make it feel a little more like home.”

“I'm trying to make everyone feel like they're home, sweetie,” Jubilee said, smiling at him when Bobby looked over at her. “I'm sure that everyone here will appreciate your handmade cards as much as your grandmother did.”

Bobby nodded and Jubilee moved onto the next tradition. “Tradition number seven is menorah. Now, I know, there is the menorah ceremony here, but I am talking about something that is just for the six of us. Erik said he has a small electric menorah that we can borrow. We'll put it up in Kitty's room and then we will all gather there on each night of Hanukkah to light the appropriate candle. Erik said there are blessings that are said so Kitty can teach them to us.”

“This is just...this is so amazing, Jubes. Like, you have no idea. A menorah in my room will be wonderful,” Kitty said. 

Jubilee knew that John was about to say something and deepened her glare to get him to stop before he did. He listened.

“Tradition number eight is putting up decorations. I have told the Professor that we will all volunteer to help put up the rest of the decorations around the mansion.”

“I always used to love helpin' my grandmother put up her decorations,” Rogue said softly, and Bobby reached out to squeeze her gloved hand. 

“I always used to help my grandmother with that too,” he said, smiling at her when she looked up. “So we'll just have to enjoy helping the Professor out this year.”

“I don't know much about putting up Christmas decorations, but I'm sure there's something I could do,” Kitty said.

“I'm in,” Piotr added. “I know they were hoping some of the taller students helped them so they don't have to get on ladders too much.”

“Yeah, well, I'm not fucking doing this,” John said, tossing his napkin onto the table. “This is fucking ridiculous.”

“You are doing this whether I have to drag you down the stairs from your room or not,” Jubilee said, fixing a glare on John again. 

John saw the fire in her eyes and knew that she was very annoyed with him, so he sat back and shut up.

“Tradition number nine is rugelach.”

“Rugelach!” Kitty exclaimed as the same time John called out.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Rugelach is my favorite dessert to have during Hanukkah,” Kitty told him, turning to Jubilee. “How could we possibly have it?”

“Erik said he will get the kitchen staff to make it on the first night of Hanukkah to serve with dinner as dessert.”

“You'll love it, you guys,” Kitty said, a huge smile on her face. 

John thought he'd be the judge of that, but he knew he'd at least give it a try. He loved dessert.

“Tradition number ten is a Christmas surprise,” Jubilee said. “I will not reveal it until it's time.”

“That is absolutely ridiculous,” John said, shaking his head. “You want us to participate in all these fucking traditions then you better fucking tell us what it is.”

“It will work better if it is a surprise,” Jubilee said patiently. “You will know it when it's time to know it.”

“This entire list is bullshit,” John exclaimed, standing up and grabbing his stuff. “The entire fucking thing.”

John stalked away from them and Bobby immediately stood up, grabbing his stuff as well. “I need to go make sure he isn't burning anything he's not supposed to. Excuse me.”

Once Jubilee was certain that both John and Bobby were far out of earshot, she turned to the three that were left with a grin. “Perfect, now we can talk about the tenth tradition.”

“So, only Johnny and Bobby can't know what it is?” Rogue asked. “That's got me really intrigued.”

“Me too,” Kitty said. “So what is it?”

“The tenth tradition is not actually a tradition. It's a plan,” Jubilee said, grinning at them. “Operation Get John and Bobby to Stop Being Idiots and Kiss Each Other Already.”

Piotr started laughing hysterically. “Oh, this I've got to hear. We've tried everything.”

“I promise you, we have not tried this and it will work,” Jubilee said, grinning. “On Christmas Eve, Rogue will distract Bobby and Kitty will distract Johnny. Piotr and I will cover the ceiling in their room in mistletoe. I have already planned out how many things of mistletoe we need and I checked out the price at the store last time I was there with the professors. I have set aside money to purchase them and I have signed up for the next trip there to get them. Then, when Piotr and I are done, we will lock their room from the inside so that when you two are done keeping them away as close to curfew as possible, they won't be able to get into it because those two morons never keep their keys on them. They'll have to stand out in the hallway until whichever one of the professors it is that night comes to lock them in, per Christmas Eve policy.”

“What policy is this?” Rogue asked. “I don't know nothin' 'bout some policy specifically for Christmas Eve.”

“They lock everyone in their rooms on Christmas Eve at curfew. That way the professors can work on getting everything set up for Christmas morning without any of the little kids coming down because they want a glimpse of Santa Claus,” Piotr explained. “I think it also keeps some of the older kids from disrupting them too.”

“I'm sure it does,” Jubilee agreed. 

“What if someone attacked the mansion then?” Kitty asked. “Everyone would be locked in their rooms.”

“One flick of Erik's wrist and they'd all unlock. Trust me, they wouldn't be doing this if they thought any actual harm could come to us from it,” Jubilee said. “Anyway, the professor that comes around to lock them in will let them into their room, and then they'll be locked into a room with mistletoe covering every part of the ceiling all night.”

“I think you're right, Jubes,” Kitty said after a moment's thought. “This might actually work.”

“If this doesn't work,” Jubilee said, “then nothing will.”

Jubilee put the list back into her bag and smiled as Kitty, Rogue, and Piotr started discussing the traditions. This was going to be amazing and John could just deal with it.

**Experiencing The Definitive List of Mutant Holiday Traditions™, according to John Allerdyce**

Tradition #1 – Dreidel

John went to Kitty's room and learned how to play dreidel, but he didn't enjoy it very much. He thinks it's because he's never been one for board games and he has nothing else to compare it to. He'll never tell Kitty that though, because he saw how excited she was to play it with everyone.

Tradition #2 – Caroling

Caroling was actually more fun that he thought it would be, only because it made them piss off a lot of the students, especially a few that he really didn't like. He didn't win the free piece of pizza though, so this was an entirely stupid idea from start to finish.

Tradition #3 – Gelt

John ate more chocolate coins than he gave to the younger kids, but he did have to admit that seeing the look on some of their faces when they got free chocolate made him feel like he'd done something right for once. He'd never actually tell anyone that though.

Tradition #4 – Decorating cookies

John will never, ever forgive Jubilation Lee for smearing frosting all over his face. Ever.

Tradition #5 – Hanukkah presents

John gave everyone pencils for Hanukkah presents because that was all he could afford. He could tell that Jubilee thought he didn't put that much effort into it, but seriously, he really couldn't afford it. If she starts to yell at him about it, he'll just get the Professor to confirm it to her.

Tradition #6 – Handmade cards

John has never found an appeal in coloring anything, let alone making a card for professors that could literally flunk him out of the school and onto the streets. But everyone else was really into it, so John shut up and drew Christmas trees. When he looked at it once he was done, he decided that it looked like someone drunk had made it. Bobby thought it was good though.

Tradition #7 – Menorah

Gathering in Kitty's room every night of Hanukkah for the candle lighting was better than he thought it would be. He'll never remember a word of those blessings, but just seeing Kitty enjoying herself when she was teaching everyone made it worthwhile. Kitty had been really down since her parents had told her about their trip, and it wasn't until this bullshit list of traditions that John had actually seen her happy. 

Tradition #8 – Putting up decorations

John will never admit it to anyone but he loves the look of the mansion when it's decked out for Christmas. He did not enjoy being one of the ones who decked it out though.

Tradition #9 – Rugelach

The rugelach was good and Kitty grinned when he told her that, so that admission was worth it.

Tradition #10 – The Christmas Surprise

John still had absolutely no idea what this was about, but he could already tell that he wasn't going to like it.

**Christmas Eve**

John could not understand why this was so fucking important that it couldn't wait, because, fuck, curfew was coming soon, but Kitty was not taking no for an answer. “You're going to love it, John, I promise.”

“I better because you are making me go all the way to the top floor and then all the way to the other end of the mansion when it's close to curfew on Christmas Eve for this, and I happen to not want to fend for myself on the streets.”

Kitty stopped and turned around. “You are not going to get kicked out if you are slightly late getting back to your room, John Allerdyce, and you fucking know it. Now come on.”

John stayed quiet for the rest of the journey to the elevator, and then he stayed quiet on the elevator while Kitty told him again that he was really going to like this, and he stayed quiet again for the long trek down the hallway to the other side of the mansion. But then Kitty opened up the door to a room that John would have just walked past, and when she turned the lights on once they were inside, John felt a smile cross his face. 

Books. Lots and lots of books.

Something occurred to him then and he spun around. “Are you sure we should be in here?”

“Erik said it was okay,” Kitty said, and if Erik had said that then John was just going to have a closer look at these books.

**********

“You have got to be kidding me, right?” Bobby said the moment that he walked into the room Rogue had brought him to. “The Professor really asked us to do this?”

“Yep,” Rogue said, smiling at him. “It's just sortin' out some laundry, darlin'. It won't take that long.”

Bobby looked over at her like she was crazy. “Do you even know how many students are here?”

“We're not doin' all of it,” Rogue said defensively. “Just what we can before we've gotta get back for curfew.”

Bobby sighed and walked towards a basket of clothes, shaking his head before setting it up on the table and beginning to sort it. “I'm missing them playing _White Christmas_ for this. And the Professor knows that it's my favorite Christmas movie.”

“You can't blame the guy for wantin' a little help, especially around the holidays,” Rogue said, putting a basket of her own on the table. “Besides, he thought it might keep both of us from thinkin' 'bout where else we could be right now.”

Bobby sighed heavily as he thought about how nice things must be in Boston at the moment. Instead of sitting in front of the tree opening the one present that his mother would let them open on Christmas Eve, he was standing there sorting out laundry. This Christmas was going to suck.

**********

Jubilee handed Piotr the last thing of mistletoe and looked around the room with pride while he tacked it up with the stapler. “This looks amazing. Better than I thought it would.”

Piotr climbed down off the chair and looked around too, grinning. “This was an amazing idea, Jubes. What made you think of it?”

“I was at the store and I was watching this guy put things of mistletoe into a display, and one of the other students on the trip said something about how they hoped that they put mistletoe up here so that they could try to drag that girl he had a crush on underneath it so that she would be forced to kiss him, and after I got over how gross that was, I realized that it could be the perfect way to get them to finally kiss. But, I knew that when either of them found out that there was mistletoe in a certain room of the mansion, they would do whatever was necessary to keep from having to go in that room. But they have no choice but to get into this one, and I wasn't about to let this opportunity be missed because there was only one thing of mistletoe up in here. And therefore this idea was born.”

Piotr laughed. “Only you could come up with that in about thirty seconds.”

“Hey, I cannot help that I am good at coming up with plans like this,” Jubilee said, grinning at him. “I have so many plans for things that haven't even began to come up yet.”

“Like what?”

Jubilee just shook her head. “A lady never tells, Piotr. You'll know when you need to.”

“Oh, alright,” Piotr said. “Now, let's gather up all this trash and get out of here before we break curfew ourselves.”

Jubilee nodded. “Good idea. And we can't forget to lock their door.”

“We won't,” Piotr said, reaching for the wrappers on John's bed. “I promise.”

**********

John glanced at the clock on the wall as he ran past it, cursing Kitty and Erik and all those amazing books because he knew he'd be late for curfew. Kitty was on her way to her own room, but if she'd still been with him, then he might have flicked on his Zippo and burned her to a crisp for this. The last thing he needed was to get kicked out of there on Christmas fucking Eve. She could say that wouldn't happen all she wanted. Kitty had no clue about John's disciplinary record. No fucking idea.

**********

Bobby ran down the hallway as others went running in the opposite direction. He couldn't believe there were really that many students still there for the winter break, but at that moment it felt like every student in the entire fucking place was running straight at him, slowing down his progress to his own room. He knew what the Professor was going to say if he broke curfew again, whether it was because he'd been helping him out with the fucking laundry or not. And if he pissed off the Professor enough, then Bobby would be out of there with nowhere else to go. So he ran faster.

**********

John reached the door first and tried it, cursing Kitty even more when he realized it was locked. He heard his name called out and turned to see Bobby running down the hall from the opposite direction. “I really hope you've got your key, Drake.”

“Of course I don't have my key. I never have my key,” Bobby said as he came to a stop next to him. “Why would I need my key?”

“Because the door's fucking locked,” John said, kicking at it in frustration. “It's fucking curfew and we can't get in our fucking room.”

Bobby tried the knob hoping that John had been kidding, groaning when he realized that he wasn't. “Well, this is just fucking great.”

“Whichever one of the professors that comes here to lock us in is going to think we broke curfew again,” John said, sliding down the wall in frustration. “Fuck.”

Bobby sat down next to John and sighed heavily. “Maybe we can convince them otherwise.”

“When do we ever fucking convince them otherwise?” John asked.

“This is so not what we needed,” Bobby muttered. “The two of us, kicked out of here on Christmas Eve. Fuck.”

“At least we'll be together,” John said, trying to smile at him. “I'm not sure where that'll get us, but at least we'll have each other.”

“Yeah,” Bobby murmured. “At least we'll have each other.”

“Hopefully it's Dr. Grey tonight,” John said after a moment. “She's more likely to listen to us than any of the other professors.”

“Knowing our luck, it'll be Professor Summers.”

Twelve minutes later, and John knew that because he was staring at the clock across the hall, a voice hit them and John buried his face in his hands. “It had to be Summers, didn't it?”

Scott rounded the corner and saw them sitting outside of their door, shaking his head. “Boys, what have we said to you about curfew?”

“We were here!” John said, standing up quickly. “I swear! It's just that the door is somehow locked and we don't have our keys.”

“It's the truth,” Bobby added, standing up as well. “Please, Professor Summers. Please believe us.”

Scott just shook his head and reached for a different set of keys, unlocking the door. “The Professor will know if you're lying. Now, inside.”

John and Bobby breathed a sigh of relief and went into the room, Scott shutting the door behind them. When John heard the lock at the top click shut, he collapsed onto his bed with his eyes closed. He was so, so ready for this holiday season to be fucking over.

So, of course, Bobby turned on Christmas music.

John opened his eyes and before he could say anything, he found himself staring up at the ceiling where mistletoe was hanging above his bed. And not, like, just a corner of the bed. No, it covered the entire ceiling above his bed, and as he looked around the rest of the room, he noticed that the whole ceiling had been given similar treatment. There was not an inch where you could stand and you wouldn't be underneath some mistletoe.

John absolutely hated Jubilation Lee.

Bobby had obviously not noticed, because when John sat up to talk to him, he was rummaging around in the top drawer of his dresser and humming along to Frank Sinatra. John thought about not telling him so that Bobby wouldn't have to know it was there, but he also knew that was incredibly unrealistic, so he had no choice but to draw his attention to it. “Drake. Look up.”

Bobby looked over at him before looking up, and when he saw the mistletoe, he absolutely hated Katherine Pryde. “Fucking Kitty.”

John found that to be an interesting response to seeing their ceiling covered in mistletoe. “Fucking Kitty? What does Kitty got to do with anything?”

Bobby let his forehead rest on the top of the dresser for a moment when he realized he'd said that out loud before standing back up and pretending the question hadn't been asked. “What's your favorite Christmas song?”

“Answer my question first,” John said seriously. “What does Kitty have to do with this?”

“Nothing,” Bobby muttered, turning his back to John. “Now tell me what your favorite Christmas song is. I somehow don't know that.”

John sat there for a moment before he realized that Bobby must talk to Kitty about him the way that he talked to Jubilee about Bobby. Before he could really think about it, he stood up and made his way over to Bobby. “Drake, look at me.”

Bobby wouldn't turn around, so John reached out and physically turned him around, but then Bobby wouldn't meet his gaze. John stood there for a moment before making a decision, knowing full well that it could turn things really, really super-awkward. “Fuck it.”

Bobby looked up at that, but John just reached out and pulled Bobby into a kiss. They kissed for a few seconds before they broke apart, and then Bobby was staring at him with wide eyes. “I cannot believe you just did that.”

John suddenly became incredibly nervous about the fact that he had done it, scratching the back of his neck before turning around. “Sorry. I'm sorry.”

Bobby was the one who reached out and physically turned John around this time, shaking his head. “Oh, Johnny.”

“It's going to be super-awkward now, I know,” John started, but before he could finish, Bobby kissed him again.

This time the kiss lasted longer then the first had, and then the third lasted longer than the second, and before either of them realized it, they were making out underneath the mistletoe. After a while, they stopped and stared at each other while John Lennon was singing about how war was over in the background, and Bobby was the first to speak. 

“I really enjoyed that.”

John broke out into a smile. “So did I.”

They fell silent again, this time listening to a really bad version of Jingle Bells before John sucked in a deep breath. “I've wanted to do that for a really long time.”

Bobby laughed. “So have I.”

John stood there for a few moments before he realized that Jubilee would kill him if he didn't say it, and he closed his eyes so he didn't have to see Bobby's reaction. “I love you,” he practically whispered.

Bobby stayed silent, and John was just about to find some way out of that room so he could go murder Jubilation Lee when Bobby's arms slid around his waist and pulled him closer. Bobby gave John a deep kiss before murmuring back the words that John had always longed to hear. “I love you too. I've been in love with you for a while.”

John opened his eyes then, and saw the complete honesty on Bobby's face before kissing him again. “I've been in love with you for a while too.”

They kissed another couple of times before the worst version of White Christmas that John had ever heard came on the radio, and he couldn't help but laugh. “Who the fuck murders a song like White Christmas?”

“Whoever this is, apparently,” Bobby said, smiling when John moved away from him. “So, typical staying up all night or do you actually sleep on Christmas Eve?”

“When you're not here, yes. With you here, not a chance.” John dug through the closet and got out their stash of candy and sodas, nodding towards Bobby's bed. 

They both climbed onto it and settled into their usual spots, the shoebox full of junk food in between their legs. But neither of them reached into the box, just sitting there as though they didn't know how to proceed. Eventually, Bobby started humming along to Winter Wonderland, and John's head came to rest on Bobby's shoulder. They sat there as the song changed and Mariah started singing about how all she wanted for Christmas was him, and John felt like he had to confess it now. “This one.”

“This one what?”

“My favorite Christmas song. It's this one.”

Bobby laughed and bent to brush a kiss along John's head. “That's hysterical.”

“Not a word of that to anyone else or I will burn you alive.”

“I'm not sure you can actually do that, but you know I won't tell anyone,” Bobby said, silence descending upon them again until the song was over. “Hey, Jubes hasn't told us what the tenth tradition is yet. I don't see why we have to wait until Christmas Day to know what it is.”

John chuckled. “The mistletoe is a big clue as to what we haven't been told.”

“What?”

“There was no tradition, Drake. There was this plan.”

Bobby laughed. “This explains why Rogue took me to sort out laundry tonight then.”

John laughed too. “Kitty took me to this room I think you're really going to like. But after tonight's curfew debacle, I think I'm going to make sure she wasn't lying when she said that Erik told her we could go in there before I take you there. I could get lost in that room for hours.”

“I'm curious now, so you'll have to tell me about it later.”

“I can do that.”

“Well, if this is the tenth tradition, I think it's my favorite of the traditions.”

“It's not really a tradition, Drake.”

“Well, we'll have to make it one then.”

They fell silent again, this time listening to Elvis sing about a blue Christmas, until Bobby had a request. “Can we amend the rules of the staying up all night plan?”

“To what?”

“Well, I just want to add making out into it,” Bobby said, and he could feel John smile. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Can we do that now?”

John laughed and sat up, moving the shoebox off the bed and sliding closer to him. “I like the way you think, Drake.”

Bobby reached out and pulled John into another kiss, and as he did, John realized that he was going to have to admit to Jubilee that her list of traditions hadn't been so bad after all.

He was going to absolutely hate that.


End file.
